A fictional language needs to belong to its world and work in performance. I design languages, dialects and accent systems for games and screen, thinking about the people who will speak them.
Your project might need a connected set of character and place names, a distinctive way of speaking, or a constructed language with its own sound system and grammar. The useful starting point is what that language needs to do in your story.
Give your world a voice
A name on a map and a conversation between characters ask different things of a language. Consistent naming can suggest connections between places or people. Spoken dialogue also needs pronunciation, rhythm and enough structure to support what the characters are saying.
I bring language creation together with my work in performance, directing and dialect. A language has to hold together on the page and leave room for an actor to think, react and mean what they say.
What I create
Constructed languages: sound systems, vocabulary and grammar shaped around the needs of a fictional world.
Fictional accents and dialects: related speech patterns that give characters and communities an audible connection.
Naming languages: a consistent basis for naming places, characters and cultures.
Pronunciation and practice materials: references that help a cast understand and reproduce the choices.
A small example
Here is an original illustration, created for this page rather than taken from a client project.
Suppose a fictional language uses nel for “river” and -ar for “settlement”. Nelar could mean “river settlement”. Giving the name a consistent pronunciation and stress pattern makes it easier to carry that same choice from a writer’s map into spoken dialogue.
Tell me what you’re building
When you enquire, a short description of the project, the language work you need, your production stage and an indicative timeline is a useful starting point. Share only material you are permitted to share.
For individual accent, dialect or performance coaching, meet me at Sanctum Vox.